A Risky Business

There are many ways to mark the passage of time. There’s the watch hand, or rather the change of the digital clock face. There’s the calendar with large X’s on each day. Or worse, there’s wondering just who is looking back at you from the mirror some mornings. There are many more that we all know, but I found a new one yesterday.

I’m teaching a class in Higher Ed Law this semester. In fact, I’m teaching it regularly now both in a traditional format and in an accelerated format for the Executive Ed.D. program. Both are at UT Austin. The first time I ever taught the course was also at UT Austin in Spring of 1997. I’m sure of that date because the department wouldn’t let me teach the course until I graduated from the same program. I graduated in December 1996 and first taught the course the next Spring.

As part of that first semester after having read and discussed the basics of tort law and studied a number of cases illustrating just what can go wrong on campus, I had the class, about 20 people, divide into small groups and gave them a list like this:

• Bouncy games
• Portable climbing wall
• Bands, both student and off-campus groups
• Food vendors, including student groups
• Open to the community
• Beer Garden.

This, I explained, was a request from a group of students who wanted to begin a new spring tradition on campus. I asked each group to review the request and make a decision. Out of this class of 20 budding and enthusiastic Student Affairs Administrators, four of the five groups denied the request. The one group that said yes only did so because one student had been part of the student group who had created an event called “40 Acres Fest.” That event had occurred on our campus the previous spring and included every single thing on my list. This group had been so frightened by the case law that they turned down what did become a tradition on the UT Austin campus.

In Monday’s class we did the same exercise though I added the element of a ‘car bash’ to the list. I added it a few years ago after a similar group of UTSA students had to convince campus risk managers to approve such a crazy idea. (“You want to do what? Why would anyone want to take a sledgehammer to a wrecked car? Do you have any idea how dangerous that could be?” They weren’t so much aghast as completely astounded by the idea.)

Every group approved the list. But they had each worked through a comprehensive list of safety precautions. They listed the need for insurance (which became routine shortly after that first class). They had requirements for food handling (some campuses let student groups prepare food on campus now.) They had waivers of course, and knew they weren’t magic. (One group added, ‘of course this will take into consideration COVID requirements’. Another group, preferred to ignore the past two years and say COVID wasn’t a consideration. 🙂 )

This class has a little more work experience than I remember that 1997 class having, but what really struck me was how much had changed since I taught that class and how much risk management is now a natural part of our work.

I’ve often said our job is to find ways to say yes to student ideas. Even, or maybe especially, the really wild ones. After all, the riskiest thing we do is let people come on campus. A student once asked me why I would ever say no to a student idea. I walked him through some of the reasons, most of which he understood, and we all know that we have to say no on occasion. But it’s much more fun to be able to say yes to good ideas and if understanding good risk management makes that more possible, then that’s a positive result.

I’m curious. Where do you see markers of change in our profession? Any that are a bit unexpected like my class experience this week? I’d love to hear about them if you have a moment to drop me a note.

Here’s wishing you the chance to say yes more than no this week.

Take care,

Gage